Christmas in Florida

  I don't believe in the whole "better late than never" mentality. At least for some things. Writing about our Christmas is one of those things. Once February hits, it's too late. So, here we are!
  Christmas this year was so great! Jon and Noreen came out and we had a wonderful time with them.
  Here is a picture update of all we did:

Grammy came to visit at the beginning of December! Here she is with the girls doing a snowflake craft.

 Posing in front of the tree before taking Grammy to the airport.

We saw Santa!  Bass Pro continues to have great Santas.  Surprisingly enough, our extrovert was the one who was afraid of him this year.  The girls all left with a smile though, after being given candy canes.

The ward Christmas party was a hit.  It was catered and everything was delicious.  We had a great time together and were happy to have Aunt Rachael and Uncle Jared with us.

While the two ambulatories (as Andrew likes to call them) were off running around, Andrew and I were able to get a nice picture with our perfect little Ellie Mae.  She brings us so much joy with her happy little personality!

We went to go see the lights at the zoo with Aunt Melissa, Uncle Jared, and Aunt Kristen (way back during Thanksgiving Week).  While there I dropped my phone.  It broke, ...so I couldn't take pictures for 2 weeks till my new phone arrived.  It was nice to be disconnected from the world for a while but equally as nice to get my new phone in the mail.  We went to the zoo again a couple times and were able to document our trip with all the pretty Christmas decorations.

Ellie loved all the colorful birds.

Aunt Noreen and Uncle Jon joined us for Christmas!  It was so wonderful to see them and their growing bundle of joy.  The girls really enjoyed having some extra someones to cuddle and play with.

Jon and Kate verses Noreen and Abby in a game of Connect Four..  The latter team won!

Our friends gifted us a gingerbread house making kit.  Kate and Abby LOVED putting it together. 

 Kate and Abby still adore Ellie which makes me happier than words can describe.  I love finding them "helping Ellie Mae be happy" and taking turns holding her.

I caught Kate and Abby in Ellie's room after she woke up from a nap.  They were jumping around the outside of her crib, trying to make her laugh.

I love the warm winter weather we are getting here.  Kate and Abby go outside to play all the time and I enjoy not having to bundle them up each time.

Kate and Abby opened their gifts from Grammy and Paka on Christmas Eve so that Grammy and Paka could watch them on their Christmas morning in Beijing.  

Abby loved her magnet book and didn't want to be distracted by anything else until she was good and done playing with it.

And adorable little Kate! Ha, this girl!  She was so excited to get her Elsa cape, gloves, crown, and scepter.  She even put on her Elsa dress to complete her ensemble. 

Santa did a great job filling the stockings and putting the presents under the tree. 

The girls were delighted to open their stockings in the morning!  It was so fun watching them come around the corner and getting so excited at all the presents under the tree and in their stockings.  Kate looked back at Abby and said, "Look Abby!  Santa came!  And he brought presents!! But we can't open them, just look."  :)

Their excitement eventually took over and they dug into their stockings

I'm glad the girls got up when they did otherwise it would have been near impossible to pry them from their new gifts from Santa.  We were able to convince them to step away for a moment to get ready for church.  Right after getting back, we took family pictures.  

The girls had little interest in opening the presents under the tree once getting back from chruch.  They were ready to play with their new toys first!  While they played, I began to prepare Christmas dinner.  

Once dinner was at a good spot to take a break, we opened presents!

Ellie Mae looking adorable with her new Koala Bear

Kate painting her nails by herself with her new Frozen nail polish.  And Abby running around in Kate's new Frozen wings.  Two cuties!

 Kate got this butterfly pillow craft from Santa.  She poked each little piece of fabric into its designated numbered spot, just like the directions directed, and it turned out perfect!  We were so proud of her for finishing the project and for doing it all by herself!

Little miss Abby got the flu over Christmas.  It didn't stop her from eating all the chocolate she could get her hands on though!

Abby passed her germs onto everyone else in the family.  Except Andrew, thank heavens.  Kate got it next, then me, then Ellie. Once Ellie started coughing I knew that she needed to get seen by a doctor.  I took her to the Emergency Room on New Years Day where she tested positive for both RSV and the Flu.  My poor baby was so miserable, moaning constantly, coughing, congested and not comfortable anywhere.  We were sent home with a prescription, however, we couldn't get it filled because it was a holiday.  That night I stayed up all night with Ellie trying to comfort her.  She would not let me set her down so I stopped after the second attempt.  After hearing so many tragic stories of babies dying from common diseases, that's all that was running through my mind.  That this could be my last night with my precious baby girl.  

So I held her, all night, praying for her and trying my best to comfort her.  Andrew set his alarm so that he could be at the pharmacy right when it opened.  A few hours after Ellie got medicine in her system, I could see a little improvement.  The next day she was feeling well enough to smile again and that evening she was laughing.  

This picture below was taken after five days of medication.  Little Ellie Mae was so excited to take a bath!  Ha, how I love this baby girl!  What a total cutie!

By mid January we were all back to our healthy selves.  Gosh, being healthy is such a huge blessing.  You don't know how good you've got it till your stuck in bed all day, sick.  Or...trying to take care of sick kids while also being sick yourself.  

Beach day

  I'm hoping today is the last day of the year that the temperature gets up to 80 degrees. I love hot weather, but not around the holidays. I want chilly weather followed by snow so that I can wear sweaters, and coats, and scarves, and boots. And I want my Christmas tree up a week after Halloween, but if it's not cold out the tree looks silly. As does everything else Christmas-y. Even on Christmas day it all feels silly if it's 60 degrees out. Oh well. Tis my life for the next 5+ years. I'll just blast my Christmas music, close the windows, crank the AC, and pretend it's snowing outside.
  Kinda got off topic. Back to the warm weather... which we did enjoy today, at the beach. We brought lunch with us and as soon as we opened up the food, seagulls flocked to us like it was raining manna all around us. Kate started running with her gold fish, spilling them all around her as she ran, and I swear those seagulls were going to snatch the bag right out of her hands. It was funny and scary to watch all at once. The girls did enjoy scaring them off after they were done with their lunch though. 

  Oh, and it was super windy. Red flag day today. Almost lost our tent while I was setting it up. Much more enjoyable for me when it's windy though. The sand doesn't stick to all of our sweaty bodies and therfore get sand all up in and over my car. Annd, it's much more comfortable nursing Ellie when I'm not so sweaty. 

Boo at the Zoo

  We had a good time at the zoo yesterday! Every year the zoo has vendors come and set up a small station to advertise their business and then give out candy to the little kiddos. I felt bad for Kate because she missed trunk or treat at church last Tuesday due to her throwing up the whole day, so we thought it'd be good to go to this Halloween activity at the zoo.
  Right when we arrived the fun started. The girls loved looking at everyone's fun costumes. However, I totally forgot to prep the girls beforehand about saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" so Kate was a mute almost the entire time. She even shook her head no to candy multiple times. Oh, this girl.
  When we were about ready to go home we saw a tent that was doing face painting. I thought the girls would love to do that so we got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. Only one lady was there doing the painting and was super friendly so, it took forever. We decided we didn't want to wait another 30 minutes at the bare minimum, so we convinced the girls to let me do their faces when we got home. It worked and we went home.
  Abby decided she didn't really want anything but Kate did and loved how her butterfly turned out.

Field trip day

  Please don't let these adorable faces fool you. These little cuties have been a major pain in my rear all morning. Well, the two older ones. Ellie can do no wrong, for now.
  I was invited to go on this homeschooling field trip day with some friends from church. It was an hour drive one way but I thought the girls would totally enjoy it so we made the trip. I even got up at 0640 to get everything ready so we could be out the door by 0810. We were 15 minutes late getting out the door, per usual, but we arrived right on time.
  There were so many fun activities to do. Cow train, horse carousel, rubber duck racing, big tunnel slides, bowling, massive bubble like trampoline. ...sounds like fun, right? Well the only things Kate and Abby participated in was bowling and the hay ride. Oh, and they let me push them on the swings. But that was it. I put them on the horse carousel, they cried to get off immediately. I begged them to get onto the cow train, they refused. Abby ventured up the stairs to go down the slide, more than Kate would do, but she'd just walk right back down the stairs. I tried convincing them to jump on the trampoline! No go. Oh. My. Gosh. Uuuuhhhh!
  So after walking around and sweating a fair amount, I gave up. We sat down and had lunch at 1045. The hay ride began at 11 and they went on it but only because I was able to as well.
  Definitely a fail for our outing this week. :(  Maybe next year my deathly shy child will venture out of her Kevlar shell a bit so she can have fun with other kids, like a normal kid, and my middle child will be happy to play with others. I can dream, right?
  I think I'm going to go eat a bag of chocolate chips now and look at pictures of my girls, who I totally adore, but drive me temporarily crazy more than I should allow.